Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary

"Target the ones moving erratically and fire." Olivia directed.

Thanks to the use of the Hydra Siphon, several of Doyle' followers began panicking under the threat of the beam that was eating away at their shields in a way that they did not understand.

This left them a bit slow to react, and the full volley of seeker missiles fired by the ten missile pods equipped to Olivia's corvette closed in on them before they even realized what was going on.

A few with incredible reflexes managed to steer their ships away just in time and use flares, but six vessels took direct hits.

The ensuing explosions destroyed four of them that had already lost more than half their shields' capacity, while the other two were heavily damaged and unable to continue fighting.

Ruthlessly, Olivia told Havanna to finish them off, and a round of pulse laser fire cut through the ships.

Just because an adversary was disabled and seemingly no threat did not mean that they could just be ignored.

Olivia had seen it several times in the past. A downed but not destroyed ship getting off one last desperate attack after the pilot managed to reboot a certain system or used repair drones to fix some critical damage.

The only time to merely disable an enemy was when trying to capture someone alive or leave their ship relatively intact to sell it for a higher price later.

However, the current battle was far too precarious to allow for such luxuries. Right now, the element of surprise and good maneuvering was keeping Olivia and her crew ahead, but that would only take them so far.

The difference in numbers was too great. If Doyle's forces were willing to take more risks, then they already could have overwhelmed Olivia's corvette with their sheer numbers. Though doing so would have likely seen more than seventy percent of Doyle's squad destroyed before the end of the fight.

Their fear kept them from making a decisive move, and that was exactly what Olivvia wanted.

Deploying the nesting mines and activating the Hydra Siphon had both been effective. Yet they were not so overwhelming as to give Olivia and her crew and absolute advantage.

Adding uncertainty was a powerful tool. If the enemy ship had a couple unusual tricks it could utilize, then those on the receiving end would wonder what else it was capable of and become reluctant to be the first to fine out.

That was, as long as their leader remained passive.

When Doyle saw how his men were floundering and unable to make a committed attack, the veins on his forehead started to bulge in anger.

They had all been slighted by Avery's team as far as he was concerned, so he could not understand why they were not furious. Was he the only one that truly felt like they had been horribly wronged.

'They embarrassed us, stole our money, and forced us to work for the agonizingly stringent Alliance Police for absolutely nothing. These are insults that we can't let stand.' Doyle thought, his already heightened emotions going wilder thanks to the alcohol and drugs currently in his system.

For years he had been dealing with a growing sense of anger inside of him, and the confrontation with Avery's team had been the last straw. Everything that had been eating away at him had come to the surface, and the only way he knew how to cope was to destroy what he currently perceived as the source of his problems.

Unable to watch the farce going on in front of him any longer, Doyle shot into action.

His ship, the Final Horizon, as he had named it, was a fast medium sized vessel armed with five multi-cannons, three laser cannons, two laser blasters, and two missile pods.

It had almost no cargo space to speak of since it had been fully modified into a high-power attack vessel. Considering the size of their fleet, Doyle just let his followers carry things for him.

"I bet you've had fun terrorizing my guys. Now let's see how you do against a real threat." Doyle said over open comms so that Olivia and his forces could hear him.

Considering how inactive he had been up until this moment, Olivia was a bit shocked to see him rushing in headlong at them.

She figured that he was the type that liked to let his subordinates soften up a target before swooping in for an easy kill. Except it seemed that his frustration at how things were going had finally pushed him to act.

This was both the greatest threat, and best opportunity for Olivia and her crew.

Certainly, Doyle piloted by far the strongest ship among his forces. It outclassed his followers in nearly every single aspect.

Nevertheless, Doyle could be compared to the main piece in a game. If he was taken out, the morale of his men would plummet to practically nothing. There was a good chance most of them would simply run away, seeing continuing the attack as a futile effort.

"Target him with all weapons systems. Don't allow him to get close." Olivia ordered.

Every pulse laser and missile pod equipped to Olivia's corvette shifted and began firing upon Doyle.

This left his other forces unrestrained, but Olivia deemed the risk worth it. Their shields could take a bit of beating. This was a chance that they could not just pass up on.

Missiles and pulse lasers streaked all around Doyle.

He mainly ignored the lasers since avoiding them would slow him down too much and only focused on the missiles.

This cost him a great deal of his shield's capacity, but it got him into the ideal range for all of his weapons.

Without restraint he fired back with everything he had. Hammering into Olivia's corvette as he passed by.

"Don't stop firing. He won't be able to keep this up for long. I'm going to bring us into a denser cluster of asteroids to prevent us from being surrounded."

Now that their leader was on the attack, Doyle's followers had been emboldened. Their earlier fear of what Olivia's craft was capable of had subsided greatly after their leader's successful attack.

With their full array of weapons targeting Doyle, it was impossible to keep the others at bay. Perhaps it was a mistaken call to focus everything on a single person, but Olivia still considered it their best course of action for victory.

"Captain, we've had to use our first shield cell." Langdon said, a bit of worry on his face.

"That's fine, don't be stingy with our resources here. All that matters is coming out alive. Focus the Hydra Siphon on the enemy vessels with the strongest shields. That should give our own capacity a bit of a boost."

Doing the best that they could, Olivia and her crew fought back.

Their vessel was stronger than any one of their opponents, so it was a matter of keeping as many off of them as possible while trying to take down Doyle.

Regrettably, while they managed to do some significant damage to the enemy leader's ship when they first knocked out his shields, he had a shield cell of his own and brought his defenses back up before the decisive blow could be dealt.

Having gotten his forces to fight more aggressively, Doyle slowly backed off and made himself a harder target to hit. Putting Olivia and her crew stuck in between a rock and a hard place. Their shields were not going to last forever, and it appeared unlikely that they would not be able to take out enough of their foes to make the others retreat.